WHAT’S LACKING IN HIP HOP?

If you’ve been listening to hip hop for more than a few years, then you must be in agreement that something is seriously wrong with the genre today. I mean the sales are headed southwards, and the sound is slowly evolving into something difficult to differentiate from Lady Gaga or Kesha. And as for the emcees, the more difficult it is to make out what you're saing, the more you're likely to sell.

Many prominent people in the industry have attempted to address this issue although the various opinions are equally divided. Recently, neo soul songstress Erykah Badu went hard at rappers for allowing their stuff to degenerate into cornball a** techno and pop. More recently, former Flip Mode Squad member Rah Digga gave her opinion on the status of the game, and according to her, rap has lost its essence as people and consequently artists are now more interested in the theatrics and shock value to make an impact. But according to her, rappers should go back to basics if they want to get the game back.

Earlier this week, G Unit boss 50 Cent decided to drop his two cents on the issue, and according to him, the game has become fake, he talks of hearing artists with dope tracks, but singing tales of lives they have never lived…

When I offer aggression, I offer it from an author, a real place. It's who I am; it's who I had to be. Not even by choice, but to survive where I came from. So a lot of actual artists don't have it. They don't have that thing. Waka Flocka, 'Hard in the Paint,' Gucci [Mane], those guys have that…It's just a lot of the other artists, I don't believe them. I believe hip-hop is in a struggle of being artistic or [having] authenticity–which one matters? Because a lot of them that write music that has a street-life theme to it haven't actually been exposed to very much of that. It's starting to feel like it doesn't matter. I'm watching it, and I'm like, Okay, it sounded great, but ya lyin'

And now most recently, Southern rapper David Banner gave his side of the story as to why hip hop is down in the dumps. In an interview with Vibe, this is how he put it…

I just have a problem with the lack of balance. Everything about rap music now has everything to do with the music but the ability to rap. It's who has this n*gga killed? Who is he beefing with? Does he have swag out the roof, shawty? No, it should be, dude, can you rap? Is the beat tight? … We have allowed corporate entities to reduce our music to a download," he says. "Our kids now they don't really believe they should pay for rap music. So there's a bigger problem that we don't see. They have now replaced the artist and the talent of the artist with general concepts like swag and being gangsta.

Okay, is it a surprise Fiddy believes you need to get shot before you can be a good rapper?